Spirally wound web pay-out apparatus

ABSTRACT

A spirally wound web pay-out apparatus for paying out a web of thin gauge wound in convolutions comprising a reel for mounting the web in coil form, reel drive means and a pair of rotatable feed rollers, one of the pair of feed rollers being a fixed roller having a fixed axial position and the other feed roller being a movable roller adapted to be urged by a spring to bear against the fixed feed roller. Gear teeth are formed on the outer circumferential surface of one coaxial side plate of the reel and a gear is attached to each of the pair of feed rollers coaxially with the respective rollers with the gear of the fixed feed roller being maintained in meshing engagement with the gear teeth of the reel and the gear of the movable feed roller.

United States Patent Mase et a1.

[15] 3,655,142 5] Apr.l1,1972

[54] SPIRALLY WOUND WEB PAY-OUT APPARATUS [72] inventors: Takehisa Mase;Hirosi Kawaura, both of Kariya; Terumoto Yamaguchi; Yosinao Amano, bothof Anjo, all of Japan 2,730,309 1/1956 Baer ..242/183 2,779,410 1/1957Leslie ..242/55 X 3,107,064 10/1963 Price et al ..242/55 3,417,93412/1968 Palm ..242/55 3,473,751 10/1969 Quenot ..242/67.2

F OREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATION S 1,055,825 4/1959 Germany ..242/183Primary ExaminerStanley N. Gilreath Assistant Examiner-Wemer H.Schroeder Att0rneyCushman, Darby & Cushman [57] ABSTRACT A spirallywound web pay-out apparatus for paying out a web of thin gauge wound inconvolutions comprising a reel for mounting the web in coil form, reeldrive means and a pair of rotatable feed rollers, one of the pair offeed rollers being a fixed roller having a fixed axial position and theother feed roller being a movable roller adapted to be urged by a springto bear against the fixed feed roller. Gear teeth are formed on theouter circumferential surface of one coaxial side plate of the reel anda gear is attached to each of the pair of feed rollers coaxially withthe respective rollers with the gear of the fixed feed roller beingmaintained in meshing engagement with the gear teeth of the reel and thegear of the movable feed roller.

2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures Patented April 11, 1972 3,655,142

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 SPIRALLY WOUND WEB PAY-OUT APPARATUS This inventionrelates to a spirally wound web pay-out apparatus for automaticallypaying out and supplying a web of thin gauge wound in convolutions. Onetype of spirally wound web pay-out device known in the art comprises areel for supporting a web of thin gauge wound in convolutions thereon,and a pair of feed rollers for paying out the web from the reel. Thereel is rotatably supported on a support bed and the pair of feedrollers are driven by an electric motor for forcibly pulling the webfrom the reel, whereby the reel can be rotated and the web can be paidout. In the conventional arrangement described above, no means isprovided for regulating the rate of rotation of the reel, so that aforce of impact tends to be exerted on the web wound in convolutions onthe reel by the inertia of the reel when the feed rollers are startedand the web in coil form tends to be loosened because the reel isdelayed in stopping rotation when the rotation of the feed rollers isterminated. Under these circumstances, the prior art has a disadvantagein that the rate of paying out of the web cannot be increased over andabove a certain level and must remain in a generally lower speed range.

This invention obviates the aforementioned disadvantages of the priorart. Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a spirallywound web pay-out apparatus which permits to pay out a web wound inconvolutions on a reel at high speeds while precluding the exerting of aforce of impact on the web in coil form and the loosening of thespirally wound web.

Another object of the invention is to provide a spirally wound webpay-out apparatus of the type described which is provided with means forautomatically starting and shutting off reel drive means by respondingto the amount of a length of paid-out web.

According to the invention, there is provided a spirally wound webpay-out apparatus comprising a reel for supporting a web of thin gaugewound in convolutions thereon, reel drive means and a pair of rotatablefeed rollers. The reel has gear teeth formed on the outercircumferential surface of a side plate and a gear is attached to eachof the pair of feed rollers concentrically therewith, one of the pair offeed rollers being a fixed roller having a fixed axial position and thegear associated therewith being maintained in meshing engagement withthe gear teeth of the reel, the other feed roller having a movable axialposition and slidably supported to bear against the fixed feed roller bythe biasing force of resilient means whereby the gears of the two feedrollers are maintained in meshing engagement with each other. Thespirally wound web pay-out apparatus is further provided with means forautomatically starting and shutting off the reel drive means byresponding to the amount of a length of paid-out web in a storage.

In the apparatus of this invention, the reel supporting the web wound inconvolutions thereon and the pair of feed rollers are maintained in afixed rotational relationship at all times, making it possible toprevent the spirally wound web from being subjected to a force of impactor from being loosened.

Additional objects as well as features and advantages of the inventionwill become evident from the description set forth hereinafter whenconsidered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional side view of the spirally wound webpay-out apparatus according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view of a paid-out web storage used with thedevice of this invention;

FIG. 3 is a front view, on an enlarged scale, of the web payoutmechanism comprising the essential portions of the device according tothis invention; and

F IG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional side view of the feed roller portionof FIG. 3.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will be described with referenceto the accompanying drawings. A web 1 of thin gauge wound inconvolutions is supported on a reel 2 which has gear teeth 2a formed onthe outer circumferential surface of a side plate thereof. A pair ofrotatable feed rollers 3 and 4 which have gears 5 and 6 respectivelyattached thereto concentrically therewith are arranged in a support box7. The feed roller 3 is a fixed roller having a rotatable shaftconnected to the support box 7 in a fixed position and the feed roller 4is a movable roller having a rotatable shaft inserted in a slot 7aformed in the box 7 for sliding motion within the extend of the slot 7a.The gear 5 of the fixed feed roller 3 is maintained in meshingengagement with the gear 6 of the movable feed roller 4 which is urgedby the biasing force of a spring 8 to bear against the fixed feed roller3. A paid-out web storage 9 for temporarily storing therein a length ofthe web paid out from the spirally wound web 1 on the reel 2 includes areceiving plate 10 disposed in the lower portion of the storage 9 andsupported at one end by one side wall of the storage 9. A spring 11 forsupportingthe other end of the receiving plate 10 and a limit switch 12are arranged on the bottom of the storage 9. The reel 2 is connected toa drive motor 17 through pulleys l4 and 15 and a belt 16. A paid-out weboutlet opening 18 is formed in the lower portion of a side wall of thestorage 9.

The limit switch is a normally closed switch which is adapted to beopened to shut off the motor 17 when the spring 11 supporting the otherend of the receiving plate 10 is compressed by the weight of a length ofpaid-out web disposed on the receiving plate 10 in the storage 9.

The operation of the spirally wound web pay-out apparatus constructed asdescribed hereinabove will now be explained. If the motor 17 is started,the rotation of the motor will be transmitted through the pulleys l4 and15 and belt 16 to the driving shaft 13 which will rotate the reel 2. Therotation of the reel 2 will rotate the fixed feed roller 3 because thegear teeth 20 of the reel 2 are in meshing engagement with the teeth ofgear 5 of the fixed feed roller 5. This will rotate the movable feedroller 4 because the gear 6 of the roller 4 is in meshing engagementwith the gear 5 of the roller 3. In this way, the apparatus according tothis invention permits to smoothly pay out the web I wound inconvolutions on the reel 2 by means of the pair of feed rollers 3 and 4without exerting a force of impact on the web 1 in coil form, so thatthe web 1 can be fed into the storage 9 without any trouble. When theweight of the length of web 1 on the receiving plate 10 overcomes thebiasing force of the spring 11 supporting the other end of the receivingplate 10, the spring 11 is compressed and the normally closed limitswitch 12 is opened, whereby the motor 17 is shut off. Shutting off ofthe motor 17 results in the reel 2 and the rollers 3 and 4 immediatelystopping rotation. This arrangement is conducive to the prevention ofexerting of a force of impact on the web 1 in coil form on the reel 2 orof loosening of the web 1 in coil form which would otherwise occur whenthe motor 17 is shut off. On the other hand, the length of paid-out webin the storage 9 is successively taken out through the outlet opening18. When the weight of the length of web on the receiving plate 10 isthus reduced, the other end of the receiving plate 10 is restored to itsoriginal position by the biasing force of the spring 11. This closes thelimit switch 12 which starts the motor 12 again.

It will be evident that if the peripheral velocities of the pair of feedrollers 3 and 4 are set at a level slightly higher than the peripheralvelocity of the coil of web 1 when it has a maximum outer diameter, aslip corresponding in amount to the difference in peripheral velocitybetween the feed rollers and reel will take place at all times between apair of feed rollers 3 and 4 and the coil of web 1, so that it ispossible to pay out the web 1 by pulling the same by the feed rollers 3and 4 while the coil of web is tensioned at all times.

From the foregoing description, it will be appreciated that the spirallywound web pay-out apparatus according to this invention comprises a reelfor supporting a web of thin gauge wound in convolutions thereon, reeldrive means and a pair of feed rollers. The reel has gear teeth formedon the outer circumferential surface of a side plate thereof and a gearis attached to each of the feed rollers concentrically therewith, withthe gear on one of the pair of feed rollers being maintained in meshingengagement with the gear teeth of the reel and the gear of the otherfeed roller. The arrangement set forth hereinabove offers manyadvantages. The reel and the pair of feed rollers are maintained in afixed rotational relationship at all times, thereby preventing theexerting of a force of impact on the coil of web and the loosening ofthe coil of web when the drive motor is started or shutoff. It is thuspossible to increase the pay-out rate to a high level which has hithertobeen unattainable by prior art devices.

One of the pair of feed rollers which has a gear not maintained indirect meshing engagement with the gear teeth of the reel has a movableaxial position and is urged by the spring to bear against the other feedroller which has a fixed axial position. This arrangement is conduciveto the elimination of an excess load which would be applied to thespirally wound web if a pair of fixed rollers were employed as is thecase with the prior art device. Besides, since the reel and the pair offeed rollers are maintained in a fixed rotational relationship at alltimes in the present invention, it is possible to pay out the web by thepair of feed rollers while maintaining the spirally wound web in atensioned state at all times if the peripheral velocities of the feedrollers are set at a level slightly higher than the peripheral velocityof the spirally Wound web when the latter has a maximum outer diameter.This permits to positively pay out a web of very thin gauge from itscoil.

What we claim is:

1. A spirally wound web pay-out apparatus comprising: a reel forsupporting a web of thin gauge wound in convolutions thereon, said reelincluding at least one flange-like side plate, reel drive means, and apair of rotatable feed rollers, said reel having gear teeth formed onthe outer circumferential surface of said side plate thereof, two gears,each being attached to a respective one of said feed rollers coaxiallytherewith, one of said feed rollers being a fixed axis roller having afixed axial position and the gear associated therewith being maintainedin meshing engagement with the gear teeth of said reel side plate, meansmounting the other feed roller for limited movement radially forward andaway from the one feed roller, said other feed roller thereby beingslidably supported, and resilient means resiliently biasing said otherfeed roller in such sense as to cause the other feed roller to bearagainst the fixed feed roller, whereby the gears of said pair of feedrollers are maintained in meshing engagement with each other.

2. A spirally wound web pay-out apparatus as claimed in claim 1 furthercomprising: a storage means for temporarily storing a length of webpaid-out from said reel, means for resiliently supporting said length ofpaid-out web in said storage means, and switch means responsive to theweight of said length of paid-out web in the storage means forautomatically starting and shutting off said reel drive means.

UNTTED STATES PATENT oTTTcE QEHMQATE 0F QGEQTWN Patent No. 3,655 1M2Dated April 11, 1972 Inventor(s) MASE, Takehisa and KAWAURA Hiros i- Itis certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and thatsaid Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

"Nippondense Kabushiki Japan as --Assignee: Kariyashi, Aichi-Lcen,

In the heading readAssignee: Ka isha, Kariyashi, Aichi-Ken, NippondensoKabushiki Ka isha, Japan,

Signed and sealed this 5th day of September 1972.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. ROBERT GOTTSCHALK Attesting Officer Commissionerof Patents FORM po-1o5oflo6g) USCOMM-DC 6037s P69 a U15, GOVERNMENTPRINYING OFHCE t 959 -356334

1. A spirally wound web pay-out apparatus comprising: a reel forsupporting a web of thin gauge wound in convolutions thereon, said reelincluding at least one flange-like side plate, reel drive means, and apair of rotatable feed rollers, said reel having gear teeth formed onthe outer circumferEntial surface of said side plate thereof, two gears,each being attached to a respective one of said feed rollers coaxiallytherewith, one of said feed rollers being a fixed axis roller having afixed axial position and the gear associated therewith being maintainedin meshing engagement with the gear teeth of said reel side plate, meansmounting the other feed roller for limited movement radially forward andaway from the one feed roller, said other feed roller thereby beingslidably supported, and resilient means resiliently biasing said otherfeed roller in such sense as to cause the other feed roller to bearagainst the fixed feed roller, whereby the gears of said pair of feedrollers are maintained in meshing engagement with each other.
 2. Aspirally wound web pay-out apparatus as claimed in claim 1 furthercomprising: a storage means for temporarily storing a length of webpaid-out from said reel, means for resiliently supporting said length ofpaid-out web in said storage means, and switch means responsive to theweight of said length of paid-out web in the storage means forautomatically starting and shutting off said reel drive means.